


Dancer

by rudolphsb9



Category: Night at the Museum (Movies)
Genre: AU - Belly Dancer, Belly Dancing, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-19
Updated: 2018-01-19
Packaged: 2019-03-06 21:37:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13420140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rudolphsb9/pseuds/rudolphsb9
Summary: It's been a good week, so Larry decides somewhat impulsively to go see a show. It becomes a lot more than he ever expected.





	Dancer

Larry took a deep breath as he stepped into the club, guided by one of the bouncers. The lights were low, the music was loud, and everyone was chattering about something or another. Immediately he felt himself retreat into his thoughts, which were all asking why the hell he thought this would be a good idea. He had a son, after all. But, his son was with his ex-wife, they had a suitable arrangement, Larry had a steady job, everything was going to be fine. So, he decided he should probably relax, and he wove through the crowd at the club before taking a seat at a table.

A waiter passed, offering him a drink, and he shook his head. “No thanks!” he yelled, loud enough to be heard. The lights dimmed even further, and a spotlight shone on the stage. Everything went quiet, and Larry couldn’t help but feel awkward. But before much could come of it, Oriental music rippled through the air, drum beats and the rhythms of string instruments and all of it commanding the attention of the whole room. A voice over a microphone announced, “AHKMENRAH!” and people cheered. Larry shifted in his seat, not sure what to expect.

The dancer who emerged onstage looked younger than he would’ve expected, and immediately drew attention. He gave the audience bedroom eyes at the first available opportunity and seemed to guide them, through his arms and his wrists, into some kind of trance. Larry knew he, at least, would follow this young man anywhere he wanted to go. Tentatively, Larry let his eyes wander, traveling over shimmering skin and muscles that moved on their own by some act of God to gyrating hips and thin, shiny gold fabric. Everything on the dancer made the most of the light, so that he looked something akin to a human disco ball.

When his back was to the crowd and he snaked his arms, though, and Larry could see the way his shoulders and back moved under the skin, he knew he was sold.

***

He never planned to stay the whole night, through two encores, even. He felt like the loudest proponent for both of them, though he doubted that was actually the case. Thankfully, he noted with relief as he paid for a taxi to take him back to his apartment, he hadn’t actually spent all that much. Maybe it helped that the dancer known as Ahkmenrah had virtually replaced the buzz of alcohol, and then some. The next day, he bought a bouquet of flowers, an impulse decision, he knew, but maybe something would come of it. When he returned to the club that night, the bouncer gave him a strange look, and must’ve called the guy who appeared a few moments later, a tall, older gentleman that looked more like a WWE wrestler of some type, yet to his credit the suit fit him incredibly well. “Um, hi,” he said.

“Can I help you?” the man asked.

“Um, yeah, these are for…the…dancer…”

“Rami.”

“Yeah. I…I knew that.”

The man gave a slight, perhaps fond smile, and gestured for Larry to come with him. “This way, please.” Larry noticed he had a slight lisp, but figured it could be worse. “Not every audience member goes to this trouble,” the man continued. “If you want his attention,” he stepped up to a door, and Larry realized they were clearly backstage, “well, I’m sure you’ll get it.” He knocked twice on the door and then let them in, and Larry stopped a couple paces inside. Rami spoke briefly to the man in Arabic as he carefully applied eyeliner, and the man replied, gesturing to Larry in the process. Rami looked up at him and then smiled, and Larry could feel his throat go dry in real time. Wordlessly he offered the flowers. Rami chuckled simply and took them.

“Thank you,” he said. Larry offered a half-smile and a wave in response. “Oh, I hope my brother didn’t scare you.”

The shock got to him for a brief moment. “Brother?”

“Kadir,” he said, gesturing to the man next to Larry. Kadir nodded and smiled gently before turning to Rami.

“Well, I should let you finish getting ready,” Kadir said, nodding to his brother before turning to Larry. “I take it you’re here for the show. So, I’ll let you go find your seat.”

“OK,” Larry managed, and as he turned to leave he realized he’d said only two words in front of Rami. Well, perhaps that was an achievement given the way he could seduce an audience into speechlessness.

***

The next week, Larry did himself one better, being able to muster a simple “hi,” on seeing Rami, especially up close and personal. He always looked like something shimmering and otherworldly in makeup, and it was always strange to see that backstage. Rami smiled warmly and greeted with a “hi” of his own and chuckled lightly when Larry awkwardly waved again and went out to find a seat.

The week after that, he bested himself again, stuttering out something resembling “How are you?” Rami flushed a little. “I fluster you, don’t I?”

“…Yeah…” Larry said softly, nodding. Rami chuckled.

“I think it’s cute. And a little refreshing.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I’ll see you out there?”

“Um…sure.” Rami laughed a little and watched as Larry awkwardly turned to leave, as if he didn’t want to go.

***

This continued for several weeks, the slow intro to the dance. If only Larry could find a way to shift into the next stage. During one of Rami’s dances, watching him shimmer in purple and beckon the audience deeper into his imaginary world with every movement and glance, he nursed a weird cocktail he thought he’d try in hopes it wouldn’t immediately kill him. He dimly realized at some point this was the first time he ever drank during one of Rami’s dances, and whatever alcohol they used in it seemed to be just enough liquid courage to spur him to wait backstage for Rami at the door to his dressing room.

Rami approached, finishing a draught from a bottle of water and noticing Larry after a moment. “Oh,” he said. “Hello.”

“Um, hi,” Larry said. “Listen, um, I wanted to ask if…”

“Yes?” he prompted gently as he leaned on the door, smiling.

“Um…would you like to…grab a coffee sometime?”

Rami broke into a grin. “Of course. How about Monday, seven thirty?”

“Sure.”

***

Seven thirty came oddly early, especially after watching Rami all night, but the excitement of seeing him again made up for whatever fatigue he may or may not have been feeling. Besides, it was coffee. Coffee would definitely help.

Rami looked like a different person in a hoodie and jeans, his hair an abject mess and only the faintest remains of last night’s makeup. “Larry,” he greeted cheerfully.

“Hey, Rami,” he replied. The actual ordering of coffee went breezily, as Larry took it black and Rami with a lot of sugar and creamer and little else. They walked leisurely down the sidewalk, using cups to warm their hands in the cool morning air in New York. “Can I ask you something?”

“Didn’t you just?” Rami said with a smile, before taking a sip.

“No I…oh…” He glanced away for a moment. “OK. Why Ahkmenrah?”

“One of Egypt’s two boy kings, he’s on display at the American Museum of Natural History,” Rami explained. “When I started dancing I felt closer to him.”

“I thought ancient Egyptians didn’t…”

“Well, no, but times change. People like to think the dead are stuck in the past but I disagree.”

“So is it like…bringing him back to life?”

He paused a little. “In a sense.”

“It’s beautiful.”

“Thank you.” Larry smiled softly at him. “What prompted you to come to the club in the first place?”

“Oh. Well, I had a little money. It was a good week, so I thought…and somebody came by the shop once and put up a flyer for one of your performances so…”

“So you went specifically to see me?”

“Yeah.”

“Aww. I’m very flattered.”

“Really?”

Rami chuckled. “Yeah, really.” He took a sip from his coffee. “People who show up just to see a specific act are very good for that act, and also the venue where the act is performing. If that person has friends, then it’s even better.”

“I wish I had friends.”

He laughed. “It’s alright.” Larry took another sip, to prevent himself from saying something impulsive. “You said you worked at a shop?”

“I own this little novelty place in Brooklyn,” he said. “I make little inventions on the side, sell them there.”

“Oh? What kind of stuff do you make?”

“Um…little toys…home-type stuff.” He shrugged nonchalantly, though he was talking to a guy who could shimmy his hips and mastered the art of come hither hands, if such a thing even existed, holding the gaze of the audience with ease with his chocolate brown eyes. In comparison, Larry saw himself as a little bit insignificant.

“Can you show me something sometime?”

“Wha—oh. Yeah. Sure. You really wanna see something?”

“Yes,” Rami said plainly, smiling faintly. Larry blushed, and he probably looked like a gaping koi fish. Rami chuckled at the sight, causing Larry’s blush to deepen. “It doesn’t have to be something big and impressive,” he said, as if to correct a mistake. “Just…you know…”

“OK.”

***

Larry found something new to focus on every time he watched Rami dance, and this time it was the way he shimmied his hips while tiptoeing around the stage and floating his hands through the air, his gaze somehow sultry, intense, and inviting all at the same time. He remembered what Rami had said, about feeling close to the Boy King Ahkmenrah when he danced, and he wondered if that was where he saw himself: the court of a young, attractive pharaoh and his queen, performing for their entertainment and that of the courtiers. Did pharaohs have courtiers? Most likely…. He took a grand bow when he finished, as if for a king, and Larry suspected he was at least somewhat on the money. Then, Rami picked up two small candles in ergonomically shaped earthenware candleholders, and the lights went down even further, leaving him illuminated by the flames and imitation torchlight.

He held the candles out to the side and turned to the audience, swaying his hips back and forth while his back sparkled in the light before dancing in a slow circle, shimmying his hips and sinking to the floor. He rocked his shoulders, snaking his arms and holding the collective gaze of the crowd with a slight smile. Larry wondered if or when he could tell that all eyes were on him, and if that made him anxious or proud. Or perhaps both. Was he thinking about the moves? Or the audience? Or maybe where the stage’s boundaries were and how not to fall off? Larry pursed his lips, noticing but not really wondering about the fact that he was thinking about these things now. Maybe it was because of the coffee date, and the fact that they knew each other a little better, and it wasn’t just a spectator staring at a dancer anymore. They were acquainted.

Later, backstage, Larry presented Rami with a small plastic gingerbread man he made for Christmas one year. Rami frowned at this, until Larry wound the spring on its back and set it on the boudoir. It inched forward on its little feet for several paces before stopping and facing Rami, lights on its person flashing in a pattern. “It’s… ‘Merry Christmas’ in Morse code,” Larry explained.

“You made this?”

“Mmhmm.”

“It’s so charming.”

“You think so?”

“Yes. For real.” He gave Larry a light smile to go with the earnest expression in his eyes. “Now, while I have you here, silver or blue?” He turned and walked over to a clothes rack as he spoke, pulling off two pairs of harem pants in the colors listed.

“Um…blue.”

***

“I’ll walk you home,” Rami said, suddenly, when the show was over and the crowds were finally leaving in drunken haze, with more help from the bouncers than Larry felt terribly comfortable with.

“Um…thanks,” he said.

“You say ‘um’ a lot.”

“You do that to me.”

Rami chuckled. “Seems that way, yes.”

“Yeah.”

“So, I’ll walk you home?”

“Sure.” He grinned, and that was really all Larry needed to know or see. Rami had such a bright smile and Larry wanted nothing more than to see it forever. Maybe if he caused a few of those himself, because that would be even better. He managed somehow to lead Rami to his place, an apartment several blocks away, but he would rather walk because walking meant talking and more time to be stunned and enamored with Rami. To learn about him and see the way his mind worked, and maybe for a moment experience the world the way he did by proxy. So the walk itself was much more pleasant than it had a right to be, and Larry talked and listened and lost track of time and Rami flashed bright smiles in the street lights and neon signs they passed.

“So…uh…I live here,” he said after they reached his apartment complex, and reached over to key himself in. “Do you wanna come up or…” Before he could finish, Rami gently brushed his lips against Larry’s, and Larry froze. He gave Rami a deer-in-headlights look and stood in stunned silence for several moments.

“Yes,” he said.


End file.
